Protector Read Online Free PDF

first thing in the morning.”
    He smiled.
    “Good night, Lucy.” Jolynn looked away. The frantic little bird in her gut wanted out.
    Charles cleared his throat. “Looks like you’re having trouble with the car. Are you leaving already?”
    She deactivated the phone, tucking it back inside her bag. “It won’t even turn over. And no, I’m not leaving.”
    Jolynn released the latch and circled to the front of the car just as he lifted the hood. She passed him a flashlight.
    “Hmmm.” He rolled his sleeves to his elbows, before extending a hand. “Charles Tomas. We were never formally introduced inside.”
    “Hello, Charles. I’m Jolynn Taylor.” She waited for his expression to change to apprehension or greed as he real ized she was the boss’s daughter. And she waited… But nothing.
    “Nice to meet you, Jolynn Taylor.” He shook her hand in one smooth motion. “Let’s see what’s going on with your car.”
    She didn’t bother letting him know if the vehicle could be fixed without a computer in a shop, she could do it herself. Let him assume what he wanted. To argue that while she loved high heels, she hated cooking and adored crawling beneath an engine, well, that would mean she cared what he thought, which was far more hazardous than depending on his help for a few minutes.
    Charles crouched beside the Maserati, peering underneath. Standing, he rested the heels of his palms on the front of her car. He reached inside, tweaking caps and hoses, while he “hmmm’d”in that time-honored manner she’d always found an amusing part of the male strutting ritual.
    Bent over the engine, he displayed his incredibly cute, narrow-hipped tush. Her gaze moved up past the taut sinews of his back she’d explored a few hours earlier. “Find anything?”
    “Not yet.” He leaned farther under the hood. “If you don’t mind my asking, where are you headed this late?”
    “Going to visit my father.” And as she said it, she realized she had to make the trip tonight, no matter how late. Delaying gave her father too much power over her emotions. “Uh, you may have heard that Dad had a heart attack.”
    She pushed down the cuticle of her thumbnail and wondered what she would say to the man she hadn’t seen in ten years.
    Charles shifted to the side, dipping his head to look at her. “Not much of a family reunion.”
    “Nope.” His flash of compassion reached to her, touching a corner of her lonely heart.
    “Why don’t you try to crank it again?”
    Jolynn slid into the driver’s seat and pressed the ignition button and… Still nothing. She ducked her head through the window and looked around the mirror. “Well?”
    “Beats me.” Charles shrugged, his greasy fingers dangling in front of him. “Sorry.”
    She thought about those nimble fingers scooping up cards… stroking her flesh. She fished around in the glove compartment for something to clean away the grease and came back with a box of Kleenex.
    Jolynn joined him in front of the car. “Here.”
    “Thanks.” He took the tissues and swiped his long fingers. “Wish I could have done more to help so you could enjoythat ride. Guess I’m just not all that great with electronics. Can I walk you back to the stateroom? Wouldn’t want you to run into trouble out here alone at night.”
    “You tried.” Jolynn watched each swipe until she forced herself to focus on something mundane, like a radiator.
    “At least let me escort you onto the ship.”
    Dilemma. Big-time dilemma. She stared under the hood, directly at the wire hanging loose beside the distributor. Every feminine inch of her screamed,
Leave the car alone. Come back out and fix it after he leaves. You don’t have to prove a thing.
    She clenched her fists by her sides and willed herself not to show this man any part of herself beyond what she chose to let him see.
    Her hands reconnected the wire to the distributor.
    She whipped the tissue box from him. Maybe he’d known that all along and had